A great hand of metal and bone, of sinew and circuit, reaches upward from the rubble to grasp the stars once more. Game spawned a fanatical purifier empire right next door to mine. First people we met. They attacked immediately even before their language was translated. Each of their four fleets (after 30ish yrs of game time) was twice the power of one of my two. Fought ‘em to a stalemate, after losing my science planet.
Teched up. Raised fleet cap. Sold everything that wasn’t nailed down, during an energy shortage, to buy alloys. When they inevitably returned a few years later it was a roflstomp. Broke their initial push and ran straight to their homeworld and made a little rubble of my own. Most of them are now _grob. The ‘magic’ fleets are annoying, but at least the AI has learned to consolidate them at crucial moments. It’s brutal sometimes, but realistic.